What's this Balance thing all about?

[bobturke]

Let me tell you a story. I thought I had a fairly good idea about most of this game then this happens...

Now you'll have to bare with me as this is all from memory. I had some spare magic SP and thought I might finally get around to buying the Balance skill. Its the one that looks like a set of old fashioned scales. For some misguided reason I had this idea it was something that you put into your healing bombs to allow them to heal yourself as well as your team mates in some sort of balance HP setup. Never thought i'd have a use for it but I had nothing else to buy except Sap Aura (and i'm not that desperate yet )

So imagine my suprise when I buy levels 1 and 2 and look at level 2. It says something about balancing HP as I expected and a 30% loss. I check the level 1 version and it has a 50% loss.

*thinks to himself it looks a little steep no wonder I never bought it before*

Then I notice its a Power Stanza! Now i'm confused (Killiane was no where around AFAIK) and curious. Guess I won't be putting it into my healing bombs. So what does it do?!?

I'm in a team with one other player. I'm in Avendale the teammate is in Fairhaven. Being male I don't read any more instructions I just push it and see what happens. I lose about 1500HP (about 50%) ad the stanza goes grey (at least is on a different timer to Inv, speed up, melee aura, magic aura, beserk, etc).

I sit there for a few minutes reading the instructions, which don't seem to make much sense, then shrug and walk off (t'was past my bed-time).

So the point of this post is, what the hell does Balance do?

[basicart]

Does as it says on the bottle it has no real use IMO apart from fun team HP nerf but i supose since mages are ment to be using more sap then hp credits and if ya got a tank thats down to say 200 hp and all ya mages are still high hp it would be good for fast heal on him kinda thing but it really has no use in my playing style.

[magick1]

Heh, it is one of those skills where even the help/info isn't any good.
It is about as helpful as flushing a toilet and get hit by water, and then noticing a sign on the door on your way out which states "toilet may splash water, when flushed".
In any case, I recommend that you use it a few times with teams, or even without if you really have to .
Do it while not fighting, not at full health and at full health, should give you a 'eureka' moment, and then you know when (not) to use it.

[basicart]

For even more fun do it while fighting boss mobs

[vinnyq]

hp balance 5 have like a 10% penalty or something, that's sorta worth it, say if you're healer and the tanks aint doing their jobs ^^

[bobturke]

Ok so the way I understand it I wait until i'm the tank and my lazy healer isn't pullin her weight. I'm getting smashed and low on HP so I hit "Balance" and which gives me a few hits and total makes the healer wish she i'd never discovered the "balance" button.

(Which I will soon be re-naming to "The Stick". As in, "you'd better be good or i'm going to hit The Stick", *hits Balance 1 key*, Bwahahaha! )

Great! So your saying even Sap Aura would have been more useful (but perhaps less entertaining).

So who wants to be in my team?

[mmatto]

Balance HP description is one of the best and most accurate descriptions in game. HP loss in lower level balances makes it unusable in most situations, but I have used it when I am healer and ran completely out of all casting power and drain some HP from tanks to be able cast some more.

Theoretically speaking, if there were no HP credits, main tank could use balance HP to heal himself as casters and secondary tanks would have full HP.

I think I have used it like 3 times

[iphdrunk]

<ic>
In the deepest caves and darkest corridors of the underground cities it is also rumored that balance hp is used by dishonourable homins that duel other homins while the 'hook' uses this skill, and others like shielding, thus giving an advantage to those thiefs...

My elders always warned me... if you have to duel someone to defend your honor or for Jena, always make sure that your opponent is unteamed.
</ic>

[vurumai]

feels the big stick humming in my direction ...

"best i dont get too lazy on the healing then Turke"

[amitst]

Balance can be an extremely useful skill especially at highe levels. At 250 you finally get it such that thre is no loss of total HP. I have used it several times to save a tank about to die, or as a second self heal while dueling if i have nearby teammates.

What it does is sum up the total hp of your team and then divide it evenly among the members. The inital levels lose x% of hp in the process. Its an intersting tactical skill, but they really should say the recharge time in the description.

Let me tell you a story. I thought I had a fairly good idea about most of this game then this happens...

Now you'll have to bare with me as this is all from memory. I had some spare magic SP and thought I might finally get around to buying the Balance skill. Its the one that looks like a set of old fashioned scales. For some misguided reason I had this idea it was something that you put into your healing bombs to allow them to heal yourself as well as your team mates in some sort of balance HP setup. Never thought i'd have a use for it but I had nothing else to buy except Sap Aura (and i'm not that desperate yet )

So imagine my suprise when I buy levels 1 and 2 and look at level 2. It says something about balancing HP as I expected and a 30% loss. I check the level 1 version and it has a 50% loss.

*thinks to himself it looks a little steep no wonder I never bought it before*

Then I notice its a Power Stanza! Now i'm confused (Killiane was no where around AFAIK) and curious. Guess I won't be putting it into my healing bombs. So what does it do?!?

I'm in a team with one other player. I'm in Avendale the teammate is in Fairhaven. Being male I don't read any more instructions I just push it and see what happens. I lose about 1500HP (about 50%) ad the stanza goes grey (at least is on a different timer to Inv, speed up, melee aura, magic aura, beserk, etc).

I sit there for a few minutes reading the instructions, which don't seem to make much sense, then shrug and walk off (t'was past my bed-time).

So the point of this post is, what the hell does Balance do?